Aug. 10 (UPI) — Two co-defendants in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump are expected to appear in federal court Thursday in Fort Pierce, Fla., to plead to a superseding grand jury indictment handed down in late July.
Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta, longtime aides to Trump, face numerous obstruction charges related to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of U.S. secrets after leaving office.
The two men have been ordered to appear at 10 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Shaniek Mills Maynard to plead to four new counts in the indictment.
Trump won’t be at this arraignment after his attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and he waived his right to appear.
De Oliveira was due to make his second appearance after a federal judge in Miami released him on $100,000 bond on July 31 and allowed him more time to find a local attorney.
In June, Trump appeared before a federal magistrate in Miami, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified materials.
Later the same month, Nauta also pleaded not guilty in the same federal courtroom to six criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit obstruction and making false statements to the FBI in January when he denied any role in moving the trove of covert documents.
On July 27, the grand jury issued a superseding indictment that leveled several new charges at Trump and Nauta, while prosecutors named De Oliveira for the first time, accusing him of conspiracy to obstruct justice; “altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing” documents; and “corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object;” and making false statements.
In August 2022, more than 100 secret papers were seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., after numerous boxes of documents were taken from the White House during Trump’s final days as president.
Federal prosecutors allege Nauta helped Trump hide boxes containing classified information from investigators who wanted them returned to Washington after Trump disregarded a May 2022 subpoena.
De Oliveira was referenced but not named in the original indictment as one of the “others” who loaded boxes of the documents onto a plane that flew Trump and his family north for the summer.
As part of the alleged coverup, Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira conspired “to delete surveillance footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club,” the government said in court documents.
The new indictment alleges that De Oliveira — who worked as the property manager of Trump’s Florida estate — helped Nauta move dozens of boxes of classified materials into a storage unit at Trump’s behest “to conceal information from the FBI and grand jury.”
Trump, who is the first president in history to be indicted on federal criminal charges, continues to deny any wrongdoing in the case, saying previously that he had the power as president to “automatically” declassify top secret papers.
Separately, the special counsel has also brought charges against Trump over his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
